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- Title
Phytochemical and genetic analyses of ancient cannabis from Central Asia.
- Authors
Russo, Ethan B.; Hong-En Jiang; Xiao Li; Sutton, Alan; Carboni, Andrea; del Bianco, Francesca; Mandolino, Giuseppe; Potter, David J.; You-Xing Zhao; Bera, Subir; Yong-Bing Zhang; En-Guo Lü; Ferguson, David K.; Hueber, Francis; Liang-Cheng Zhao; Chang-Jiang Liu; Yu-Fei Wang; Cheng-Sen Li
- Abstract
The Yanghai Tombs near Turpan, Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region, China have recently been excavated to reveal the 2700-year-old grave of a Caucasoid shaman whose accoutrements included a large cache of cannabis, superbly preserved by climatic and burial conditions. A multidisciplinary international team demonstrated through botanical examination, phytochemical investigation, and genetic deoxyribonucleic acid analysis by polymerase chain reaction that this material contained tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive component of cannabis, its oxidative degradation product, cannabinol, other metabolites, and its synthetic enzyme, tetrahydrocannabinolic acid synthase, as well as a novel genetic variant with two single nucleotide polymorphisms. The cannabis was presumably employed by this culture as a medicinal or psychoactive agent, or an aid to divination. To our knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent, and contribute to the medical and archaeological record of this pre-Silk Road culture.
- Subjects
CENTRAL Asia; CANNABIS (Genus); POLYMERASE chain reaction; GENETICS; ENZYMES
- Publication
Journal of Experimental Botany, 2008, Vol 59, Issue 15, p4171
- ISSN
0022-0957
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/jxb/ern260